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Oil slick drifts toward California coast

Spill September 29, 1997
Web posted at: 8:29 p.m. EDT (0029 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- At least 10,000 gallons of oil spilled from an undersea pipe on Monday near Santa Barbara County in Southern California.

As of Monday afternoon, the slick was 1.5 miles offshore and drifting toward land. It was expected to reach shore late Monday, according to Alexia Retallack of the California office of Oil Spill Prevention and Recovery.

The slick was estimated to be two miles wide and four miles long. Officials say it contains between 10,000 and 20,000 gallons of oil.

Specially equipped boats were working the slick, using booms to prevent the oil from further spreading.

Local fishing boats were pitching in and helping authorities transport oil-fighting supplies, officials said.

Santa Barbara

Favorable weather conditions -- low winds, calm seas and bright sunshine -- were helping cleanup efforts.

A team of about 35 workers waited on shore for the slick to arrive, Retallack said.

The pipeline that officials believe is the cause of the slick runs between an offshore oil-pumping platform and an oil field in Lompoc, California. The pipeline was shut down after a low pressure alarm sounded.

"We'll have divers go perform an inspection of the leak to determine how we can fix it," said Art Boehm, a spokesman for Torch Operating Co., the company running the oil platform.

Torch reported the spill. The platform is owned by Nuevo Energy and Bellweather Exploration, both headquartered in Houston.

The slick was headed toward a part of Vandenberg Air Force Base's 35-mile coastline.

Air Force officials said they were concerned about the environmental threat and impact on the base's wildlife.

There were no reports of injured wildlife or estimates of the long-term environmental effects of the spill.

"We consider any oil spill to be a major incident," Boehm said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

 
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